Monday, 28 October 2013

Following the bailout of the
Banks in 2008, one of the conditions set by the EU was that both LloydsTSB and RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) are required to divest part of their
Retail and Corporate business, to effectively create two new challenger Banks
on the High Street – each Bank having significant market share.

A couple of months ago, we
saw the launch of the UK’s 7th largest Bank ‘TSB’, a brand that first appeared 200 years ago. RBS
has also recently announced that Corsair consortium - which is backed by Church
Commissioners for England and therefore the church's pension fund - had
successfully bought a stake in the Williams
& Glyn Bank.

The deal is significant as it
will give the Church a role in high street banking, it was backed by the Church
Commissioners and it is believed to be in attempt to establish an ethical
dimension in the group's vision for the small business-focused Bank. Lord
Davies, one of the executives has pledged to put lending to small business at
its heart, give more funds to the community, cap its bonuses at 100% of annual
salary [a pay policy driven by the Church] and to uphold “the highest ethical
standards”.John Maltby the new CEO has
been quoted as saying “Williams &
Glyn’s will commit to the highest standards of banking ethics and business
conduct while providing increased customer choice in the UK Banking market”.

We will not see Williams and Glyn return to the high
street until 2015 but it will be interesting to see what influence the Church
and John Maltby have in its creation and how different it will be to the Top 5
high street Banks of today.

Emma
Mitchell

Emma is a member of the congregation of St John's and works as a management consultant within Financial Services